Customer Reviews

Definitive Collection

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Definitive Collection should have been one of the best compilations of the great Dionne Warwick's career yet. The song selection leaves out some of Dionne's' older '60s hits, but does encompass the full range of her successful career.

The remastering job sounds superb, and that is the top criteria I look for in CDs these days. They've applied 20-bit digital mastering from the original master tapes.

Unfortunately, and this is a real problem, on several of the tracks the first few seconds of the song have been truncated. Cutting off the first few notes of a song simply ruins it. It's unforgivable that professionals at a major label can publish something flawed this badly and no one notice. Yet I notice the screw ups the first time I listen to this CD.

The flawed tracks are: Alfie, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, Don't Make Me Over, I Say A Little Prayer, Message To Michael, Walk On By, The Windows Of The World, Deja Vu, After You, Love Power, That's What Friends Are For. The intro was truncated on practically EVERY single track. It's possible that I just received a bad CD, but that's not very likely.

Despite the great promise of this otherwise wonderful CD, cutting off the intros renders the CD unusable for listening - and a waste of money, unless you plan to just sample from it.

The problem with this CD is that whoever did the mastering didn't know how to insert track-markings. If you are scanning through the disc, you might think that the introductions of many songs have been cut off. What has happened is that [...] Arista placed most of the track markings AFTER songs have started (You have to back-up and listen to the end of a previous track in order to hear the beginning of the next one).

Naturally, if you play the CD from start to finish, you'll never notice this problem.

This is really sad because the quality of the sound is very good, and the CD is probably the best representation of Warwick's work. But I wouldn't recommend this disc because of the technical flaw.

First of all, we have yet to have a truly definitive collection of Dionne's best work, which means a cd set that includes all of her 1960s' hits (including "(Theme From) The Valley Of The Dolls" and "This Girl's In Love With You", two top ten hits not on this cd), her 1970s' classics and her '80s' comeback hits. However, "The Definitive Collection" is as close as you can get to a perfect sampler of Dionne's biggest hits.

I'll start by saying that I think "The Windows Of The World" and "After You" could have been cut so they could include "(Theme From) The Valley Of The Dolls" and "This Girl's In Love With You", since those are two of her biggest hits and unless there were publishing problems - which I doubt - they should have definitely been here. Also, "The Windows Of The World" and "After You" are the only weak songs on this cd. Other than that, these songs are true classics. I mean, just look at the selections - "Anyone Who Had A Heart", "Walk On By", "Do You Know The Way To San Jose", "Alfie", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", "Then Came You", "I'll Never Love This Way Again", "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "That's What Friends Are For", to name a few (okay, about half) of the album's classic cuts from nearly 25 years' worth of recording. Her best work was recorded with Burt Bacharach and Hal David at the pen and the helm, although the Barry Manilow - penned "I'll Never Love..." is just as good.

As I said, this isn't exactly definitive, but it's pretty close. In my opinion, the definitive Dionne Warwick collection would be a two disc set that would include all her hits up to today. Here is what the track list should look like:

Disc 1:
"Don't Make Me Over"
"Anyone Who Had A Heart"
"Walk On By"
"A House Is Not A Home"
"You'll Never Get To Haven (If You Break My Heart)"
"Reach Out For Me"
"Are You There
"Message To Michael"
"Trains And Boats And Planes"
"I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself"
"Alfie"
"The Windows Of The World"
"I Say A Little Prayer"
"Valley Of The Dolls"
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose"
"Who Is Gonna Love Me"
"There's Always Something There To Remind Me"
"Promises, Promises"
"This Girl's In Love With You"
"The April Fools"
"Odds And Ends"
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again"

Disc Two:
"Then Came You"
"Once You Hit The Road"
"I'll Never Love This Way Again"
"Deja Vu"
"After You"
"No Night So Long"
"Easy Love"
"Some Changes Are For Good"
"Friends In Love"
"Heartbreaker"
"Take The Short Way Home"
"How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye"
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"
"That's What Friends Are For"
"Whisper In The Dark"
"Love Power"
"Reservations For Two"
"What The World Needs Now Is Love"

Overall, however, this is definitely a great collection for any music fan. Pick this cd up as soon as you can. It won't change your life, but it's excellent msuic.

I bought this collection after hearing Dionne's newest album Dionne Sings Dionne and after hearing Do You Know The Way To San Jose {My Favorite} played constantly on the loudspeaker at Disney's California Adventure and then I fell in love with this collection. I liked hearing the original Walk On By and the love ballad Don't Make Me Over. The Joan Baezish The Windows Of The World sounds very folky and should be played on radio today. A bit of trivia for all you Dionne fans This song was a giant hit part not because of her biggest top hit but it became a anthem for troops during the Vietnam War. The latter part covers Dionne's Hits from 1979-87 and contains the Barry Manilow penned After You and the lovely I'll Never Love This Way Again that is taken from her Arista Debut Dionne. Other Tracks include Reservations for Two and features Jazz singer Kashif {Pronounced KASH-eef} from Dionne's 1987 album of the same name and the fun Heartbreaker. It would be nice if there is a volume II of this definitive collection but until then,
"I'LL BE ON YOUR SIDE FOREVER MORE THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR"
Enjoy,
Regis

This CD has good music and excellent sound quality, but there are some issues with it. The big one that I noticed right away is that the record company placed the track markings after some of the songs had already started. This tells your CD player when to start the next track if you are flipping through songs. A lot of the beginnings of the songs get cut off. You have to go back to the end of the previous song to even hear them. If you want to listen to this start to finish, you will never be bothered, but it makes scanning to a certain song really annoying.

Mrs Warwick is a living legend. Her presence in the musical stages was never more expected, because somehow she filled a visible void in this wide sector of the market.

She represented the kind, expressive, romantic and charm voice inside the varied universe of musical genres. The white voices were literally complete; there were quite a lot number of options: Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, Peggy Lee, Tammy Wynette, Connie Francis, Bobbie Gentry, Dusty Springfield, but the Black voices lacked of someone like her. Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin filled the soul spirit, but hardly you would be able to watch just a spectacle under moonlight with such music.

The best evidence in this sense was the fact composer of the artistic level Burt Bacharach composed a part of his unforgettable creations for her. Do you know the way to San Jose? or This guy 's in love with you are irrefutable testimonies that seem to valid this statement

Go for this album that will reward you over and over again.

"Dionne Warwick: The Definitive Collection," is a great introduction to one of the worlds most enduring pop/r&b vocalists. This collection of Dionne's work spans over thirty years of recordings and does it all in 72 minutes. The track listings begin almost chronologically starting with "Anyone Who Had A Heart" and ending with her last number one hit "That's What Friends Are For." This collection should have been titled "The Essentials" because it deals with her better known recordings only. In 1972, Dionne left Scepter for Warner Brothers and none of those sides made it to this release. The gap between Scepter and Arista is, however, bridged with her duet with the Spinners, "Then Came You." Her Arista years are well represented, all songs are full length versions, not edited like those on her "Greatest Hits 1979-1990." In my opinion, the one song that is sorely missed is her duet with Johnny Mathis titled "Friends In Love" which was beautifully performed by both vocalists and produced by Jay Graydon. Two fine album cuts did make this release, the Barry Manilow produced ballad "After You" and the Luther Vandross produced "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" featuring the original members of the Shirelles, the group Dionne sang backgrounds for before her solo career. One of Dionne's hits "Reservations For Two," somehow overlooked for her "Greatest Hits" package, made it here. Dionne recorded three more albums for Arista in her late career and none of those albums are represented, although they are mentioned in the liner notes. The albums are "Dionne Warwick Sings Cole Porter," "Friends Can Be Lovers," and "Aquarela Do Brasil," her Arista swan song. Sonically, this album is well mastered, utilizing 20-bit oversampling for superb sound reproduction. Again, this album deals with Dionne's better known recordings and is perfect for the casual fan but for the more ardent fan such as myself, although it lacks lesser known material and her years with Warner Brothers, it still makes a nice addition because of the remasters and the featured album cuts.

This should be a fantastic music set...but once you listen...you will notice that there is something wrong with the cut-offs & beginnings of the songs when played in shuffle mode.

This is simply unacceptable and does a tremendous disservice to Ms Warwick...a true icon whose work should never have been presented in such a sloppy fashion.

It seems as if it was not edited at all.


Definitely two thumbs down for the editing...thumbs up for the compilation.

this is a must have cd. this cd contains the songs that rocket Dionne Warwick Sky High. Her Voice and talent shows what a real diva is made of. like i said it is a must have!

This is one of the best if not the best albums Dionne released. I love her interpretation of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", it brought tears to my eyes. All the standards that she sung accompanied by Burt Bacharach are just the joint! A very memorable album and the best of Dionne!